Born into a military family in San Diego, Carla Kirkwood is an Emmy-winning writer, director, and social activist. Kirkwood’s
activism has focused on women’s liberation and issues of the working class. In 1969, as a student at San Diego State College,
she helped found the nation’s first women’s studies program. From 1974-1977, Kirkwood was active in the International Association
of Machinists in San Diego. She was also safety steward for the United Steel Workers Local 1010 at Inland Steel Corporation
in East Chicago, Indiana, before turning her attention to theater.

Kirkwood studied classical and contemporary Chinese Theater from 1982-1984 at the Central Drama Academy in Beijing, China,
earning a graduate degree in performance studies. In 1986 she received her Master’s of Fine Arts Degree from the University
of Leeds in England with an emphasis in global performance practices. Kirkwood received her Ph.D. from the University of California,
San Diego in theater and dance.

Kirkwood is an accomplished writer and director, winning three Emmy awards for her work with KPBS-TV, the San Diego Public
Broadcasting affiliate. Kirkwood’s artwork and performances often deal with social issues she would like to draw attention
to. In the early 1990s, Kirkwood received acclaim for the public art project “NHI” (No Humans Involved) and the accompanying
performance piece “MWI” (Many Women Involved), which drew attention to the unsolved murders of 45 San Diego women. Two of
Kirkwood’s solo performances, “War Diaries” and “Bodies of Evidence” were performed at the Whitney Museum of American Art
in the mid-1990s. Her collaborative public art projects include “There Are 206 Bones in the Human Body” (1988) and “Welcome
Back Emma! We Have Missed You So!” (1989).

From 1994-1997 Kirkwood was a visiting professor of theater and art at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. In 1995
she attended the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women and the parallel NGO Forum on Women, in Beijing. She currently
holds a faculty position at Southwestern College in Chula Vista, where she has worked for over 20 years.

Scope and Content

The collection contains materials pertaining to the activities of social activist of Carla Kirkwood as they relate to women’s
issues, unions, and the working class, and her art projects. Publications regarding women’s liberation in the 1960s and 1970s
are held in the collection, including board meeting documents related to the founding of the San Diego State College Women’s
Studies Program in 1969 through the early 1970s. The collection also includes publications and flyers regarding union and
labor activities in the 1970s and early 1980s, as well as flyers regarding an Ironworkers union strike in August of 1980 from
the National Steel and Shipbuilding Company (NASSCO). There are pamphlets, reports and flyers on international women’s issues
from the NGO Forum on Women ’95 in Beijing, China and the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women held in August and
September 1995, both of which she attended. The collection also includes publicity for Kirkwood’s art projects, as well as
scripts and VHS recordings of her performances.